The 159-bed facility is currently dealing with 33 confirmed staff cases as well as 66 confirmed resident cases.

10:40 a.m. (updated): Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government will fund provinces’ efforts to test people for COVID-19, track the contacts of those who test positive, and help different jurisidictions share data.

Trudeau says the measures are essential because COVID-19 remains a serious health threat and the economy can’t fully recover until Canadians are confident that the novel coronavirus will be contained anywhere new it breaks out.

He says federal contact-tracers are helping public health authorities in Ontario and are ready to make thousands more calls a day when any province asks.

10:30 a.m.: Trudeau is holding his daily briefing earlier today because of a cabinet meeting. A livestream of his news conference is available at thestar.com

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said “every option” was on the table in the country’s fight to contain the pandemic. But in an interview with the Star Thursday evening, Blair said using the intelligence community’s powers in the effort to trace the pandemic’s spread is a “bright line” he is unwilling to cross.

9:36 a.m.: As lockdowns ease across the United States, millions of Americans are set to take tentative steps outdoors to celebrate Memorial Day. But public health officials are still concerned that if people congregate in crowds or engage in other risky behaviour, the long weekend could cause the coronavirus to come roaring back.

Medical experts warn that the virus won’t take a holiday for the traditional start of summer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to recommend that people stay home, avoid crowds and connect with family and friends by phone or video chat.

Dr. Seth Cohen, an infectious disease expert at the University of Washington Medical Center-Northwest in Seattle, advised that people who do celebrate keep their distance from one another, wear masks and avoid sharing food and drinks.

9 a.m.: Statistics Canada says retail sales in Canada posted their biggest monthly decline on record in March and warned that the drop for April will eclipse that loss.

The agency says retail sales fell 10.0 per cent to $47.1 billion in March as non-essential businesses began to shut their doors mid-month due to the pandemic.

The drop was in line with economists’ expectations of 10 per cent, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.

Statistics Canada also says a preliminary estimate for April indicates a 15.6 per cent drop for the first full month of the pandemic.

The March decline came as sales plunged at motor vehicle and parts dealers, clothing and clothing accessories stores and gasoline stations, while sales at grocery stores soared.

Excluding motor vehicle and parts dealers, retail sales were down 0.4 per cent for the month.

8:30 a.m.: As Ontario begins to reopen and works to contain the spread of COVID-19, one aspect of the fight has proved troublingly evasive.

On any given day in the past month, the province hasn’t been able to account for the source of exposure for more thantwo-thirds of reported cases of the virus. This is because the cases are due to community spread — where the source has been determined to be “unknown” — or they are still being investigated by local public health units.

Ontario’s difficulty in tracking down this information stands in sharp contrast to other provinces, namely British Columbia and Alberta, which have been able to follow the virus better, contain it and ease lockdowns faster.

8:23 a.m.: The coronavirus pandemic accelerated across Latin America, Russia and the Indian subcontinent on Friday even as curves flattened and reopening was underway in much of Europe, Asia and the United States.

Many governments say they have to shift their focus to saving jobs that are vanishing as quickly as the virus can spread. In the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, unemployment is soaring.

8:17 a.m.Much of the U.S. remains unlikely to venture out to bars, restaurants, theatres or gyms anytime soon, despite state and local officials across the country increasingly allowing businesses to reopen, according to a new survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

That hesitancy in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak could muffle any recovery from what has been the sharpest and swiftest economic downturn in U.S. history. Just 42 per cent of those who went to concerts, movies, theatres or sporting events at least monthly before the outbreak say they’d do so in the next few weeks if they could. Only about half of those who regularly went to restaurants, exercised at the gym or travelled would feel comfortable doing so again.

8:15 a.m.Government officials in Greece have announced that the country would open to foreign visitors on June 15.

According to BBC.com, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis revealed on Wednesday that travelers arriving at popular destinations across the country would be subjected to coronavirus testing and government-mandated health protocols.

Tourism Minister Harry Theoharis said Greece would provide a list before the end of May consisting of approved countries it would allow visitors from based on “epidemiological criteria” from health and safety experts.

Theoharis said the plan is to allow travelers from approved countries to arrive only through Athens International Airport starting on June 15 before expanding the order to all of Greece’s other airports on July 1.

8:07 a.m.: British researchers testing an experimental vaccine against the new coronavirus are moving into advanced studies and aim to immunize more than 10,000 people to determine if the shot works.

Last month, scientists at Oxford University began vaccinating more than 1,000 volunteers in a preliminary study designed to test the shot’s safety. Those results aren’t in yet but on Friday, the scientists announced they’re expanding to 10,260 people across Britain, including older people and children.

7:34 a.m. China’s No. 2 leader on Friday promised higher spending to revive its pandemic-stricken economy and curb surging job losses but avoided launching a massive stimulus on the scale of the United States or Japan.

Premier Li Keqiang told lawmakers Beijing would set no economic growth target, usually a closely watched feature of government plans, in order to focus on fighting the outbreak. The virus battle “has not yet come to an end,” Li warned.

Also Friday, legislators took up a proposed national security law for Hong Kong that activists complain might be used to suppress political activity. The Trump administration has warned it might withdraw the former British colony’s preferential trade status if the “high degree of autonomy” promised by the mainland is eroded.

The coronavirus pandemic that prompted China to isolate cities with a total population of 60 million people added to strains for the ruling Communist Party that include anti-government protests in Hong Kong and a tariff war with Washington.

China has reported 83,000 virus cases and 4,634 deaths from the virus. It was the first country to shut down factories, shops and travel to fight the pandemic and the first to reopen in March but it is still struggling to revive activity.

6:25 a.m.: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be under pressure today to detail how the federal government will help provinces massively scale up testing for COVID-19 as the country slowly begins to come back to life.

Trudeau reiterated Thursday evening his offer of federal help on testing and contact tracing during his weekly conference call with premiers — repeating an offer he first made a week ago and which the Prime Minister’s Office says was well received.

Yet despite that offer, the provinces and territories combined are testing fewer than 30,000 Canadians every day — less than half the available testing capacity that chief public health officer Theresa Tam has said should be the target.

The lack of testing is particularly problematic in the two largest provinces, which account for some 80 per cent of the COVID-19 cases across the country.

Ontario has fallen far short of its goal of 16,000 tests per day, with the province completing 10,506 tests on Tuesday.

In Quebec, home to more than half Canada’s COVID-19 deaths, 9,582 tests were completed on Monday, according to the latest figures.

Trudeau said Thursday that he and the premiers would talk later in the day “precisely about how we can scale up testing immediately in places where it’s necessary, like in Ontario and Quebec, and be ready to scale up almost instantly in places where right now, the virus is pretty well under control, but any flare-ups need to be responded to extremely quickly.”

Several other countries have taken to testing wastewater for signs of the novel coronavirus as an indication of flare-ups in their communities.

The virus isn’t only detected in the back of people’s throats. It’s also found in waste. And while not everyone will get tested for COVID-19, most everyone uses the toilet.

“This is a tool that can actually provide an early alert to our public health in regards to re-emergence of infectivity in communities,” said Mike McKay, the executive director of the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research at the University of Windsor.

His research group is one of several across the country looking at whether sampling sewage could be a viable way to alert public health officials to new outbreaks.

4:26 a.m.: Two mining companies — Vale Canada and Wheaton Precious Metals — have teamed up to donate $200,000 to support the United Way Centrade North East Ontario’s (UWCNEO) COVID-19 Community Response Fund.

The donation will provide emergency support for vulnerable community members through UWCNEO’s network of partners.

“Vale has a long history of support for the United Way,” said Dino Otranto, COO for Vale’s North Atlantic Operations.

“We aim to continue that tradition of support through the COVID-19 global crisis with our business partners Wheaton Precious Metals.”

4:01 a.m.: The shutdown of much of the country’s court system due to the COVID-19 pandemic is taking a financial toll on many lawyers, and law societies are not doing enough to help, members of the profession say.

While trial lawyers are perhaps most affected, many in the trade say other sectors — such as real estate — are also feeling the pinch. Small firms and relative newcomers, they say, are most exposed.

Most courts across Canada have now been all but closed for months. Bail hearings and other emergency applications have continued, as has other legal work that can be handled in writing or remotely, but many lawyers only make money when they can go to court for hearings.

4 a.m.: New Brunswick is set to move to the next phase of its COVID-19 recovery plan today.

The so-called “yellow phase” means barbers and hair stylists can reopen, as well as churches and fitness facilities.

Dental care, massage therapists, chiropractors and other “close contact” businesses and services will also be allowed to open.

The new phase will also allow family and friends to form social “bubbles,” and up to 50 people to gather with physical distancing.

The move comes a day after the province reported its first new case of COVID-19 in almost two weeks.

Thursday 10:58 p.m. China reported four new confirmed cases, including two in the northeastern province of Jilin that has seen China’s latest outbreak.

Another 372 people are in isolation and undergoing monitoring for being suspected cases or for testing positive without showing symptoms; 82 people remain in hospitals being treated for COVID-19.

The new cases come as China opens the delayed session of its ceremonial parliament, the National People’s Congress, which is being held largely behind closed doors in Beijing to avoid cross-infections as China seeks to avoid a second-wave of cases. The country has reported a total of 4,634 deaths among 82,971 cases.

Thursday 8:35 p.m. Fifteen research teams across Ontario will receive $7 million from the government to help develop vaccines or treatments to fight COVID-19.

The 159-bed facility is currently dealing with 33 confirmed staff cases as well as 66 confirmed resident cases.

10:40 a.m. (updated): Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government will fund provinces’ efforts to test people for COVID-19, track the contacts of those who test positive, and help different jurisidictions share data.

Trudeau says the measures are essential because COVID-19 remains a serious health threat and the economy can’t fully recover until Canadians are confident that the novel coronavirus will be contained anywhere new it breaks out.

He says federal contact-tracers are helping public health authorities in Ontario and are ready to make thousands more calls a day when any province asks.

10:30 a.m.: Trudeau is holding his daily briefing earlier today because of a cabinet meeting. A livestream of his news conference is available at thestar.com

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said “every option” was on the table in the country’s fight to contain the pandemic. But in an interview with the Star Thursday evening, Blair said using the intelligence community’s powers in the effort to trace the pandemic’s spread is a “bright line” he is unwilling to cross.

9:36 a.m.: As lockdowns ease across the United States, millions of Americans are set to take tentative steps outdoors to celebrate Memorial Day. But public health officials are still concerned that if people congregate in crowds or engage in other risky behaviour, the long weekend could cause the coronavirus to come roaring back.

Medical experts warn that the virus won’t take a holiday for the traditional start of summer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to recommend that people stay home, avoid crowds and connect with family and friends by phone or video chat.

Dr. Seth Cohen, an infectious disease expert at the University of Washington Medical Center-Northwest in Seattle, advised that people who do celebrate keep their distance from one another, wear masks and avoid sharing food and drinks.

9 a.m.: Statistics Canada says retail sales in Canada posted their biggest monthly decline on record in March and warned that the drop for April will eclipse that loss.

The agency says retail sales fell 10.0 per cent to $47.1 billion in March as non-essential businesses began to shut their doors mid-month due to the pandemic.

The drop was in line with economists’ expectations of 10 per cent, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.

Statistics Canada also says a preliminary estimate for April indicates a 15.6 per cent drop for the first full month of the pandemic.

The March decline came as sales plunged at motor vehicle and parts dealers, clothing and clothing accessories stores and gasoline stations, while sales at grocery stores soared.

Excluding motor vehicle and parts dealers, retail sales were down 0.4 per cent for the month.

8:30 a.m.: As Ontario begins to reopen and works to contain the spread of COVID-19, one aspect of the fight has proved troublingly evasive.

On any given day in the past month, the province hasn’t been able to account for the source of exposure for more thantwo-thirds of reported cases of the virus. This is because the cases are due to community spread — where the source has been determined to be “unknown” — or they are still being investigated by local public health units.

Ontario’s difficulty in tracking down this information stands in sharp contrast to other provinces, namely British Columbia and Alberta, which have been able to follow the virus better, contain it and ease lockdowns faster.

8:23 a.m.: The coronavirus pandemic accelerated across Latin America, Russia and the Indian subcontinent on Friday even as curves flattened and reopening was underway in much of Europe, Asia and the United States.

Many governments say they have to shift their focus to saving jobs that are vanishing as quickly as the virus can spread. In the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, unemployment is soaring.

8:17 a.m.Much of the U.S. remains unlikely to venture out to bars, restaurants, theatres or gyms anytime soon, despite state and local officials across the country increasingly allowing businesses to reopen, according to a new survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

That hesitancy in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak could muffle any recovery from what has been the sharpest and swiftest economic downturn in U.S. history. Just 42 per cent of those who went to concerts, movies, theatres or sporting events at least monthly before the outbreak say they’d do so in the next few weeks if they could. Only about half of those who regularly went to restaurants, exercised at the gym or travelled would feel comfortable doing so again.

8:15 a.m.Government officials in Greece have announced that the country would open to foreign visitors on June 15.

According to BBC.com, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis revealed on Wednesday that travelers arriving at popular destinations across the country would be subjected to coronavirus testing and government-mandated health protocols.

Tourism Minister Harry Theoharis said Greece would provide a list before the end of May consisting of approved countries it would allow visitors from based on “epidemiological criteria” from health and safety experts.

Theoharis said the plan is to allow travelers from approved countries to arrive only through Athens International Airport starting on June 15 before expanding the order to all of Greece’s other airports on July 1.

8:07 a.m.: British researchers testing an experimental vaccine against the new coronavirus are moving into advanced studies and aim to immunize more than 10,000 people to determine if the shot works.

Last month, scientists at Oxford University began vaccinating more than 1,000 volunteers in a preliminary study designed to test the shot’s safety. Those results aren’t in yet but on Friday, the scientists announced they’re expanding to 10,260 people across Britain, including older people and children.

7:34 a.m. China’s No. 2 leader on Friday promised higher spending to revive its pandemic-stricken economy and curb surging job losses but avoided launching a massive stimulus on the scale of the United States or Japan.

Premier Li Keqiang told lawmakers Beijing would set no economic growth target, usually a closely watched feature of government plans, in order to focus on fighting the outbreak. The virus battle “has not yet come to an end,” Li warned.

Also Friday, legislators took up a proposed national security law for Hong Kong that activists complain might be used to suppress political activity. The Trump administration has warned it might withdraw the former British colony’s preferential trade status if the “high degree of autonomy” promised by the mainland is eroded.

The coronavirus pandemic that prompted China to isolate cities with a total population of 60 million people added to strains for the ruling Communist Party that include anti-government protests in Hong Kong and a tariff war with Washington.

China has reported 83,000 virus cases and 4,634 deaths from the virus. It was the first country to shut down factories, shops and travel to fight the pandemic and the first to reopen in March but it is still struggling to revive activity.

6:25 a.m.: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be under pressure today to detail how the federal government will help provinces massively scale up testing for COVID-19 as the country slowly begins to come back to life.

Trudeau reiterated Thursday evening his offer of federal help on testing and contact tracing during his weekly conference call with premiers — repeating an offer he first made a week ago and which the Prime Minister’s Office says was well received.

Yet despite that offer, the provinces and territories combined are testing fewer than 30,000 Canadians every day — less than half the available testing capacity that chief public health officer Theresa Tam has said should be the target.

The lack of testing is particularly problematic in the two largest provinces, which account for some 80 per cent of the COVID-19 cases across the country.

Ontario has fallen far short of its goal of 16,000 tests per day, with the province completing 10,506 tests on Tuesday.

In Quebec, home to more than half Canada’s COVID-19 deaths, 9,582 tests were completed on Monday, according to the latest figures.

Trudeau said Thursday that he and the premiers would talk later in the day “precisely about how we can scale up testing immediately in places where it’s necessary, like in Ontario and Quebec, and be ready to scale up almost instantly in places where right now, the virus is pretty well under control, but any flare-ups need to be responded to extremely quickly.”

Several other countries have taken to testing wastewater for signs of the novel coronavirus as an indication of flare-ups in their communities.

The virus isn’t only detected in the back of people’s throats. It’s also found in waste. And while not everyone will get tested for COVID-19, most everyone uses the toilet.

“This is a tool that can actually provide an early alert to our public health in regards to re-emergence of infectivity in communities,” said Mike McKay, the executive director of the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research at the University of Windsor.

His research group is one of several across the country looking at whether sampling sewage could be a viable way to alert public health officials to new outbreaks.

4:26 a.m.: Two mining companies — Vale Canada and Wheaton Precious Metals — have teamed up to donate $200,000 to support the United Way Centrade North East Ontario’s (UWCNEO) COVID-19 Community Response Fund.

The donation will provide emergency support for vulnerable community members through UWCNEO’s network of partners.

“Vale has a long history of support for the United Way,” said Dino Otranto, COO for Vale’s North Atlantic Operations.

“We aim to continue that tradition of support through the COVID-19 global crisis with our business partners Wheaton Precious Metals.”

4:01 a.m.: The shutdown of much of the country’s court system due to the COVID-19 pandemic is taking a financial toll on many lawyers, and law societies are not doing enough to help, members of the profession say.

While trial lawyers are perhaps most affected, many in the trade say other sectors — such as real estate — are also feeling the pinch. Small firms and relative newcomers, they say, are most exposed.

Most courts across Canada have now been all but closed for months. Bail hearings and other emergency applications have continued, as has other legal work that can be handled in writing or remotely, but many lawyers only make money when they can go to court for hearings.

4 a.m.: New Brunswick is set to move to the next phase of its COVID-19 recovery plan today.

The so-called “yellow phase” means barbers and hair stylists can reopen, as well as churches and fitness facilities.

Dental care, massage therapists, chiropractors and other “close contact” businesses and services will also be allowed to open.

The new phase will also allow family and friends to form social “bubbles,” and up to 50 people to gather with physical distancing.

The move comes a day after the province reported its first new case of COVID-19 in almost two weeks.

Thursday 10:58 p.m. China reported four new confirmed cases, including two in the northeastern province of Jilin that has seen China’s latest outbreak.

Another 372 people are in isolation and undergoing monitoring for being suspected cases or for testing positive without showing symptoms; 82 people remain in hospitals being treated for COVID-19.

The new cases come as China opens the delayed session of its ceremonial parliament, the National People’s Congress, which is being held largely behind closed doors in Beijing to avoid cross-infections as China seeks to avoid a second-wave of cases. The country has reported a total of 4,634 deaths among 82,971 cases.

Thursday 8:35 p.m. Fifteen research teams across Ontario will receive $7 million from the government to help develop vaccines or treatments to fight COVID-19.

The 159-bed facility is currently dealing with 33 confirmed staff cases as well as 66 confirmed resident cases.

10:40 a.m. (updated): Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government will fund provinces’ efforts to test people for COVID-19, track the contacts of those who test positive, and help different jurisidictions share data.

Trudeau says the measures are essential because COVID-19 remains a serious health threat and the economy can’t fully recover until Canadians are confident that the novel coronavirus will be contained anywhere new it breaks out.

He says federal contact-tracers are helping public health authorities in Ontario and are ready to make thousands more calls a day when any province asks.

10:30 a.m.: Trudeau is holding his daily briefing earlier today because of a cabinet meeting. A livestream of his news conference is available at thestar.com

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said “every option” was on the table in the country’s fight to contain the pandemic. But in an interview with the Star Thursday evening, Blair said using the intelligence community’s powers in the effort to trace the pandemic’s spread is a “bright line” he is unwilling to cross.

9:36 a.m.: As lockdowns ease across the United States, millions of Americans are set to take tentative steps outdoors to celebrate Memorial Day. But public health officials are still concerned that if people congregate in crowds or engage in other risky behaviour, the long weekend could cause the coronavirus to come roaring back.

Medical experts warn that the virus won’t take a holiday for the traditional start of summer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to recommend that people stay home, avoid crowds and connect with family and friends by phone or video chat.

Dr. Seth Cohen, an infectious disease expert at the University of Washington Medical Center-Northwest in Seattle, advised that people who do celebrate keep their distance from one another, wear masks and avoid sharing food and drinks.

9 a.m.: Statistics Canada says retail sales in Canada posted their biggest monthly decline on record in March and warned that the drop for April will eclipse that loss.

The agency says retail sales fell 10.0 per cent to $47.1 billion in March as non-essential businesses began to shut their doors mid-month due to the pandemic.

The drop was in line with economists’ expectations of 10 per cent, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.

Statistics Canada also says a preliminary estimate for April indicates a 15.6 per cent drop for the first full month of the pandemic.

The March decline came as sales plunged at motor vehicle and parts dealers, clothing and clothing accessories stores and gasoline stations, while sales at grocery stores soared.

Excluding motor vehicle and parts dealers, retail sales were down 0.4 per cent for the month.

8:30 a.m.: As Ontario begins to reopen and works to contain the spread of COVID-19, one aspect of the fight has proved troublingly evasive.

On any given day in the past month, the province hasn’t been able to account for the source of exposure for more thantwo-thirds of reported cases of the virus. This is because the cases are due to community spread — where the source has been determined to be “unknown” — or they are still being investigated by local public health units.

Ontario’s difficulty in tracking down this information stands in sharp contrast to other provinces, namely British Columbia and Alberta, which have been able to follow the virus better, contain it and ease lockdowns faster.

8:23 a.m.: The coronavirus pandemic accelerated across Latin America, Russia and the Indian subcontinent on Friday even as curves flattened and reopening was underway in much of Europe, Asia and the United States.

Many governments say they have to shift their focus to saving jobs that are vanishing as quickly as the virus can spread. In the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, unemployment is soaring.

8:17 a.m.Much of the U.S. remains unlikely to venture out to bars, restaurants, theatres or gyms anytime soon, despite state and local officials across the country increasingly allowing businesses to reopen, according to a new survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

That hesitancy in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak could muffle any recovery from what has been the sharpest and swiftest economic downturn in U.S. history. Just 42 per cent of those who went to concerts, movies, theatres or sporting events at least monthly before the outbreak say they’d do so in the next few weeks if they could. Only about half of those who regularly went to restaurants, exercised at the gym or travelled would feel comfortable doing so again.

8:15 a.m.Government officials in Greece have announced that the country would open to foreign visitors on June 15.

According to BBC.com, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis revealed on Wednesday that travelers arriving at popular destinations across the country would be subjected to coronavirus testing and government-mandated health protocols.

Tourism Minister Harry Theoharis said Greece would provide a list before the end of May consisting of approved countries it would allow visitors from based on “epidemiological criteria” from health and safety experts.

Theoharis said the plan is to allow travelers from approved countries to arrive only through Athens International Airport starting on June 15 before expanding the order to all of Greece’s other airports on July 1.

8:07 a.m.: British researchers testing an experimental vaccine against the new coronavirus are moving into advanced studies and aim to immunize more than 10,000 people to determine if the shot works.

Last month, scientists at Oxford University began vaccinating more than 1,000 volunteers in a preliminary study designed to test the shot’s safety. Those results aren’t in yet but on Friday, the scientists announced they’re expanding to 10,260 people across Britain, including older people and children.

7:34 a.m. China’s No. 2 leader on Friday promised higher spending to revive its pandemic-stricken economy and curb surging job losses but avoided launching a massive stimulus on the scale of the United States or Japan.

Premier Li Keqiang told lawmakers Beijing would set no economic growth target, usually a closely watched feature of government plans, in order to focus on fighting the outbreak. The virus battle “has not yet come to an end,” Li warned.

Also Friday, legislators took up a proposed national security law for Hong Kong that activists complain might be used to suppress political activity. The Trump administration has warned it might withdraw the former British colony’s preferential trade status if the “high degree of autonomy” promised by the mainland is eroded.

The coronavirus pandemic that prompted China to isolate cities with a total population of 60 million people added to strains for the ruling Communist Party that include anti-government protests in Hong Kong and a tariff war with Washington.

China has reported 83,000 virus cases and 4,634 deaths from the virus. It was the first country to shut down factories, shops and travel to fight the pandemic and the first to reopen in March but it is still struggling to revive activity.

6:25 a.m.: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be under pressure today to detail how the federal government will help provinces massively scale up testing for COVID-19 as the country slowly begins to come back to life.

Trudeau reiterated Thursday evening his offer of federal help on testing and contact tracing during his weekly conference call with premiers — repeating an offer he first made a week ago and which the Prime Minister’s Office says was well received.

Yet despite that offer, the provinces and territories combined are testing fewer than 30,000 Canadians every day — less than half the available testing capacity that chief public health officer Theresa Tam has said should be the target.

The lack of testing is particularly problematic in the two largest provinces, which account for some 80 per cent of the COVID-19 cases across the country.

Ontario has fallen far short of its goal of 16,000 tests per day, with the province completing 10,506 tests on Tuesday.

In Quebec, home to more than half Canada’s COVID-19 deaths, 9,582 tests were completed on Monday, according to the latest figures.

Trudeau said Thursday that he and the premiers would talk later in the day “precisely about how we can scale up testing immediately in places where it’s necessary, like in Ontario and Quebec, and be ready to scale up almost instantly in places where right now, the virus is pretty well under control, but any flare-ups need to be responded to extremely quickly.”

Several other countries have taken to testing wastewater for signs of the novel coronavirus as an indication of flare-ups in their communities.

The virus isn’t only detected in the back of people’s throats. It’s also found in waste. And while not everyone will get tested for COVID-19, most everyone uses the toilet.

“This is a tool that can actually provide an early alert to our public health in regards to re-emergence of infectivity in communities,” said Mike McKay, the executive director of the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research at the University of Windsor.

His research group is one of several across the country looking at whether sampling sewage could be a viable way to alert public health officials to new outbreaks.

4:26 a.m.: Two mining companies — Vale Canada and Wheaton Precious Metals — have teamed up to donate $200,000 to support the United Way Centrade North East Ontario’s (UWCNEO) COVID-19 Community Response Fund.

The donation will provide emergency support for vulnerable community members through UWCNEO’s network of partners.

“Vale has a long history of support for the United Way,” said Dino Otranto, COO for Vale’s North Atlantic Operations.

“We aim to continue that tradition of support through the COVID-19 global crisis with our business partners Wheaton Precious Metals.”

4:01 a.m.: The shutdown of much of the country’s court system due to the COVID-19 pandemic is taking a financial toll on many lawyers, and law societies are not doing enough to help, members of the profession say.

While trial lawyers are perhaps most affected, many in the trade say other sectors — such as real estate — are also feeling the pinch. Small firms and relative newcomers, they say, are most exposed.

Most courts across Canada have now been all but closed for months. Bail hearings and other emergency applications have continued, as has other legal work that can be handled in writing or remotely, but many lawyers only make money when they can go to court for hearings.

4 a.m.: New Brunswick is set to move to the next phase of its COVID-19 recovery plan today.

The so-called “yellow phase” means barbers and hair stylists can reopen, as well as churches and fitness facilities.

Dental care, massage therapists, chiropractors and other “close contact” businesses and services will also be allowed to open.

The new phase will also allow family and friends to form social “bubbles,” and up to 50 people to gather with physical distancing.

The move comes a day after the province reported its first new case of COVID-19 in almost two weeks.

Thursday 10:58 p.m. China reported four new confirmed cases, including two in the northeastern province of Jilin that has seen China’s latest outbreak.

Another 372 people are in isolation and undergoing monitoring for being suspected cases or for testing positive without showing symptoms; 82 people remain in hospitals being treated for COVID-19.

The new cases come as China opens the delayed session of its ceremonial parliament, the National People’s Congress, which is being held largely behind closed doors in Beijing to avoid cross-infections as China seeks to avoid a second-wave of cases. The country has reported a total of 4,634 deaths among 82,971 cases.

Thursday 8:35 p.m. Fifteen research teams across Ontario will receive $7 million from the government to help develop vaccines or treatments to fight COVID-19.